Neurological complications of HIV

The HIV virus is both neurotropic and immunotropic, causing progressive destruction of both systems. Although their frequency has been markedly reduced in the combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) era, neurological presentations and complications of HIV remain common. Neurological opportunistic infections (OI) and diseases occur in advanced HIV disease and include cryptococcal meningitis, progressive multifocal encephalopathy, primary cerebral lymphoma and cerebral toxoplasmosis. Neurological disease directly associated with HIV may occur at any stage in the progress of HIV disease, from the aseptic meningitis of primary HIV infection to AIDS-associated dementia observed in subjects with profound immune deficiency. In the era of effective antiretroviral therapy, where peripheral HIV viral replication is largely controlled, non-HIV-related neurological disease such as stroke is of increasing importance as the HIV population ages.